These zons had an unbeaten season in Reggies S73, powering through to take the title and advance to the conferences. Things are a bit tougher in Confs, and I was hopeful that my 3x Mighty Blows could inflict some serious damage.

Drive 1: I receive. Opposition had a chainsaw! This was moderately scary and the option was there to try and score early and force him off. In the end the wood elves stuck it out for the full half, Huge Patrol killed Helmut, and it was a fairly straight forward score.

Half time 1-0

Drive 2: Zons receive. Now for the fun bit, the Stormbreakers had no sure hands. Surely Huge could leap in, strip the ball free and we'd canter away for a glorious 2-0 victory. Sadly no. Both leap attempts failed 1 rr 1, 2 rr 2. The screen looked pretty good at T16, but the slippery girls found a way through. 1-1

Either I'm getting better at setting up my doomed to fail 1TTD attempts, or Klazam took longer than 5min. Anyway, I'd clicked End Set-up and flicked over to a different window while waiting for him to return.

Then I heard the Kick, then I heard.... a Catch. It better not be that bloody Tree again!

Switched back to the Fumbbl window and thankfully the ball was in the hands of the elf back field. Can I finally do this T16 1TTD?

RIP captain and thrower Kai Bollinger. Cut down while leading S74 Conf completions, and passing yards. No awards now for him this season. He might have been quite useful in an Elfy shootout next game. I'll miss the Leader skill too.

A chance for elfball! Score plenty of touchdowns for the rebuy! However, without my thrower, and his leader reroll, I was never really going to try elfball.

But Flippers was on 15spp, let's start the game by giving him an easy completion so he can skill.

The last person to move, once in position, I realised there was a slight problem with the sun. An "easy" 2+ became a probable 3+. Out on the wing, if Flippers fumbled the High Elves could swoop in, knock the feeble ST2 catcher out the way. Collect, pass back and be on their way to a win.

[2]

So many ifs in a game of blood bowl

If the reroll failed....
If the relentless abuse (blitzes and fouls) of my Av6 wardancers actually hurt one....
If Bobs didn't misclick a KO into a stun, maybe the numbers advantage would mean I didn't need to go for it to score...
If that gfi for it failed...
If the KOed High Elf M9 catcher returned for Turn 8...

Half time 1-0

The second half High Elves scored T4. Wood Elves played conservatively, while the wardancers removed players from the pitch. A couple of hits on the ball carrier were made by High Elves dodging into the cage. A guard even got in once to allow a 2D. But Nuffle preferred to be kind to Bravado.

78 games of Ranked. First game 12-Oct-2013. Mostly to reacquaint myself with Blood Bowl before joining a table top league.
281 games of Blackbox. First game 7-Oct-2016. Initially to sate my addiciton, but now it's more measured. 16 games of ARR sprint with goblins every 2 months. Masochicsm, Penance, to earn Nuffle points, for the more important games in table top and...

SWL is what got me hooked. A league with a massive history (2004!), awesome community, and a chance to test yourself against the best and create legends.
I played 106 games of SWL proper with Freezy Trees,
also a bunch of games in SWL Fringe. 60 games offering builders to new teams with my shameless Skaven pickers, 14 games as Fillers for the main league, and a few side tournaments (Waikikamukau, Thunderdome, Smacks).

The rest is mostly in the NZ league I run DIBBL, just completed its 14th season, won for a second time by my overpowered 91 game Vampires. Also premium events such as Crap Bowl, Dirty Ring, Big Star (MORG! recently celebrated his 50th game).

But SWL is what got me hooked. Plus I've managed to cover every game in this blog, so it made sense to celebrate the millenium with Bravado's 20th game. It's a credit to the admin team and the SWL community as a whole that this monster has kept rolling on so well for so long.

Bravado's 4th encounter against greenskins, and never tasted victory in the previous three. I might need Nuffle to be nice to me, and the great one duly obliged with 4 armour breaks in my first turn (one by rock). Two cas left the Orcs shorthanded in the first drive, and these Wood Elves aren't shy about stalling.

Half time 1-0.

Second half started with me wondering just how I'd get the ball off the Strength 4, Sure Handed, Break Tackle, Mighty Blow, Tackle superstar Impak. Maybe I wouldn't have to, he failed the pick up.

The Wood elves thought the ball was a little to far away to try and pick up. So they attempted to isolate the star. Managed to get a 2D hit in the following turn, and secured the ball.

This was the moment I truly felt "I've got this one!"
Emily with nerves of steel would catch it, dodge away and score.

[1] catch rr [1]

With time running out, orcs largely tied up, and elves leaving the pitch in droves, attempts were made to slow down the big oaf. The screen was flimsy, but it kept reforming. Impak got harried, dodged many times, got hit 2D, stood strong.
Impak scored T16. I didn't have this one.

Despite the S4 Black orcs and all the guard, it seemed to me the 1 turner was still on. It wouldn't be easy though. This time, however, I didn't fail to notice the riot.

One thing about playing in a fairly restricted timezone, is you do bump into the same players a fair bit. There are still enough players around for a decent variety of play styles, but it's quite good to play a few games against the same people.

There are 4 SWL coaches I've played against more than two times and have yet to walk off the pitch victorious.

Not all of these game were SWL games, but knocking Dlock off my unbeatable list would be nice. It'd also guarantee me a spot in Prem next season.

Dlock brought a mercenary assassin to scare my pair of Av6 war dancers.

This game was brutal. I received, scored two casualties in my opening turn, and things were looking good for an 8 turn grind to half time. However, it wan't just dark elves leaving the pitch. By turn 7 it was 7 vs 7, and the Wood Elves felt there were too many gaps in the defence so scored.

Two turns for the dark elves to equalise. A kick into the end zone and a Blitz! What to do?, charge forward yet risk the ball bouncing out. It didn't bounce out. Dan Dan risked a gfi, a dodge, and on a failed picked up a surf. Dodged, went for it, failed the pick up. Surf? Lineman assist to make it 2D needed to gfi and fell over.

Half time 1-0

Probably the biggest moment of the game. Ag5 dark elf went to pick up the kick off. Failed. Didn't reroll. Wood Elves are fast.

The ball did change hands again when the guard dark elf successfully dodged into 3 TZs to make it 2D. However, with numbers around the ball, Bravado got it back and away, and ground it out to score in T15.

Final score 2-0 (3/4/0 - 1/0/1)

=======

Meanwhile up in the clouds of the top division, mushoomy (ramchop jr), secured the first kiwi SWL Prem title since Season 17. That's waaaaaay back in 2006!

While it's great to see him see success in this awesome game, surely the polite thing to do would be to wait until his Dad had won it first. He's also taken two NAF tabletop tournaments in NZ (I'm on zero). And he's not even reached drinking age yet!

Not too many bashy teams there, though there are a few individual players around who'll cause pain with surgical precision (a S4 Mighty Blow Wardancer!)

Season 74 goals:
1) Win Prem
2) Beat the current champ (ramchop jr)
3) Thrash someone with a 3+ margin
4) Kill something special (a star with a stat boost)
5) End the season with a superstar on the roster

Back to the big time! A successful season meant I had enough cash for the Seasons rebuy. 20cas = 100k, 14td = 70k, games 70k, 290k cash hoarded, 1000k base, and the big bonus 100k for making prem. 1,530k budget. Nobody wanting to retire. No skilled players needing to be culled.

I even had 30k treasury in savings towards a 12th player. Once I get a bench, I may even win a few prem games.

So, commish orcs for a third time. 0/1/1 h2h going into this one and I wasn't at all confident.

It wouldn't be a ramchop season in Prem without a well timed mind fart. How could I screw things up this season?

After squeaking in a T8 score (leap required), I had the task of preventing the M9 wolf from One Turning it. mushoomy is quite the master at the 1TTD, I've seen him do a 6 square chain push in table top.

So instead of a conventional back field screen I tried to be clever.

Stand firm tree, side step catcher, and lino protected by 2x guards. Seemed pretty solid to me. Unfortunately, short on numbers the 2nd guard meant there was a hole in my backfield screen. No worries, with my master set up, he'd never get back there.

Not even a pocket to push Alice into.

Oh....

...$h!t!

It took me minutes of thinking, and moving players about to come up with that plan. What really hurts is that he saw what to do immediately. No waiting, no pondering, just straight to the jugular.

A lizardman team without a bench. Time for a skink hunt. What's this?, an extra player.....

I had expected that. With 2x Av6 Wandancers, very few people could have resisted the urge to stick the knife in.

The game plan hadn't really changed. Those 2x Av6 Wardancers both have tackle and mighty blow. Time for a skink hunt.

First half, Bravado receives.
End of Turn 2, Hemlock stabs Flippers (BH), Saurus punches a journey elf (BH). No skinks out
Elves knock out Hemlock and another skink, but are forced to score Turn 5. Both skinks return.
End of Turn 7, a skink has left the pitch! Sent off by the ref after killing my superstar catcher!! Apo (mng)
Elves stop the the skink equaliser

Half time 1-0

Seven elves defending against 11 lizards. The skink hunt has not gone well.

Yeah, eventually I was gonna run out of new things to say in this blog.

However, Inducements. SWL is operating under the new GW inducement rules. The printed ones, not the Facebook answer to a question, nor the Talk Fantasy Football unofficial looking post. The ones actually printed in the rule book. Shocking!

FUMBBL used these new rules in R&B for a bit, and when they were introduced there were instances of abuse. You see, if you're the bigger team, you can unload cash into in game inducements, and your poorer weaker opponent simply has to suck it up.

With seasons, the rule is not as open to abuse. Yes, expensive mistakes does introduce an element of use it or lose it. However, treasury needs to be conserved for the next season rebuy. I guess, a team with impending retirement on the horizon could potential party in their last game - dump all their treasury on chainsaws and bribes. But SWL has a number 1 rule, which everyone here seems to abide by: "Don't be a dick"

Treasury management has introduced a new element to running a team. There have been tweaks here and there to the formula, and things only seem to be getting better. I'm enjoying it.

The CRP inducement rules do seem a bit fairer to me. However, with CRP the weaker team can't top up with treasury to eke out a bit more bang for their buck. So I dumped in an extra 10k to take me from 90k to 100k, and got myself an extra babe.

What a first drive! Bravado chose to receive, hoping that the 3 mighty blow players might net some cas. And that they did, in two turns there were two dead Zons, and a badly hurt one. Should be smooth sailing from here....

Turn 3 Huge Patrol went hunting the retreating Amazons. Unsuccessful, but stepped back behind a screen.
Yeatus Christ didn't take kindly to that, and went Huge hunting. Needed a Dodge and 2x gfis to get to him but it was worth it. Splat! -av, apo, reserves.

Turn 4
The 4x Zon guards made their move and surrounded the elf cage.

Turn 5 Emily needed to get out of there and score. Tree tried to punch a hole, but the target went down on the spot meaning Dodge 3+ [3], Dodge 2+ [4], GFI [1] rr GFI [1]. Prone in the endzone, that tripwire strikes again.
Dan Dan gets knocked down (Av6 stays strong), Barbapapa collects and short pass to Yeatus Christ

A very bloody game. Huge got hunted down again, this time no apo. Dead!

====

So now there is a treasury quandary: 200k with 2 games left to play in the season.

Option 1: Cut to 190k and risk the expensive mistakes rolls. Save that cash for next season. Even with the Huge expense gone, I still need a decent amount of money to rebuy this team.

Option 2: Buy another wardancer. This would put me in financial difficulty for the rebuy. Down to 80k, with only 2 games to collect winnings. A prem title is very nearly out of reach (top team is currently 4/0/0). But I am in second (3/0/2), and a top-3 would keep me in the top division, with an extra 50k bonus over what I'd get back down in the conferences. Plus, you can't win Prem if you're in the conferences.

The Wildwood Windlords are completely dominating Season 74 of SWL. It seems likely that they may be the first team in the League’s long long history to record a perfect Prem season. So, what’s so special about Sandune’s team?

Wychwethyl, Strength 4, Mighty Blow, Tackle, Side step. A leaping terror. Simply terrifying
Vilot Voom (Catcher), Movement 10! Sure feet, Block. Simply disgusting.
The others make a good support package. Strong arm, accurate thrower. Strip Ball wardancer. A few guards. Oh, and he has a Block tree too. He even has a bench!

How? I figured whatever I did, I’d need help from Nuffle. I decided to go in with a 10 man roster and induce Zara and a babe.

First drive, Windlords receive.

On turn 5, after I’d dished out a wee bit of damage. The disgusting catcher was KOed, a wrestle lineman in casualty. The other catcher made his move. No tripwire endzone line this time. He snaked the third gfi the square before it.
My turn 5. Gobslab goes for it twice to reach my endzone and get the ball!
His turn 6. Tree badly hurt Zara. Wardancer dodges 3 times to try to surf Gobslab. Gets there [SKULL], reroll [POW]. Crowd hurls it next to a Bravado lineman. Windlords lino gets it, but fails the dodge before he could pass to glory.
My turn 6. I partially cage up near the halfway line. Pick up and pass to the waiting catcher. Emily snakes the catch.
His turn 7. A third Windlord moves into my endzone. Another failed catch.
My turn 7. A third player gets surfed from my endzone into the crowd. With no rerolls, and no realistic chance of scoring I decide against risking a failed pickup of the ball in the endzone and cover it instead. Bad move.
His turn 8.

A really close and enjoyable first half. Although I went into the game thinking I had no chance, Nuffle conspired to give me hope right up until the end. Not so in the second.

So what do I need to do to stay in Prem?
Either Orcs or Rats need to lose their R7 games. And I need to beat Norse in mine.
Amazons were winning 2-0 in T12 of their R7 game /cheer, Orcs pull it back to draw 2-2. /boo